On 1/8/24 6:32 PM, Gordon Pettey wrote:
> There are at least a few generally language-specific build
> tools/systems that can, if you're into masochism, be used to build
> other languages (Gradle, Maven, etc.), and tools like Ant, which while
> primarily used in Java projects is really just a Makefile with
> different syntax and core functions in XML. Does making a new category
> for explicitly general-purpose tools like Make and friends ambiguate
> where the language-specific tools belong? Should other
> non-Make-related packages be moved from their current dev-[language]
> locations?
> 
> Does dev-util/gyp really belong there, or since it is node-specific,
> should there be a dev-js category?


gyp is not node specific. It was originally invented by Google, to be
Google's build system for the C++ project known as the chromium web browser.

It is also famously used to build the C++ project known as Node.js (the
interpreter) which node projects use.

It is not a very popular build system because it is written by Google
and as was only to be expected, Google has deprecated it in favor of GN
and thus gyp is largely not used anymore.

Its only revdep in Gentoo is mozc, another large C++ project that
contains no javascript. IIRC, Node.js forked and maintained gyp
internally so they could continue to use it to build C++ software
without being concerned about its being abandoned.


-- 
Eli Schwartz